Food Inspector's Field Day

Food Inspector's Field Day,

Years ago, nobody much cared about food hygiene, as long as the food was great and there were no cockroaches roaming around the premises.

But nowadays, people are equipped with a greater awareness of 'clean' food, being properly educated through the media.

Thus, in the mindset of the greater masses, bacteria are per definition a total NoNo.

"Wash, Clean, Fresh", these are the keywords to handling food.

At our girl's school annual carnival, I couldn't help notice this stall selling "China Burgers", a mixture of eggs, dough and condiments grilled on a searing, hot moulded oven,..... coming in different flavours, ranging from chicken, seaweed, prawn, squid and etcetera. 

It smelled nice and with a grumbling stomach I placed an order for a handful of burgers.....and honestly, they weren't that bad, correction....the burgers were actually quite good.

After doing the rounds through school, checking out the other activities on hand, I wandered back to this particular stall, but this time from the back.

Doh, if I am a Food Agency inspector, I would have gone berserk.  

Crayons and crayons of eggs beneath and beside the hot stoves (no fridge in sight), discarded egg shells piling out of a cardboard box behind the lady chef, the empty crayons surrounding her on the floor, a metal pot full of beaten up dough, discarded water containers........and I didn't see a proper trash can in plain view.

I realize it was a 2 man show : lady doing the actual cooking and guy doing the wrapping and selling the burgers. Working at break neck speed to serve the crowd.

And I'm the first to admit that I didn't voice out my worries and neither did anybody else.  

Come on, there should be some basic form of food hygiene....I'm pretty sure there are countless stalls operating like this all around the place. 

Thing with the local food agency here, they only act when there are complaints from the public,......given their restricted resources, it's a wonder that they are able to perform their duties.

So for the time being, I should put up this sign on the door of our toilet, in case anybody gets struck by some digested bacteria, indicating somebody either takes a pee, a crap or is busy vomiting :p

And for the record, Laetitia and me didn't have to use the above sign that very day.....

Everything was "kosher" :)